Carolina Ilkow

Contact Information

Carolina Ilkow, PhD
613-737-8899 ext 75208
cilkow@ohri.ca

E-mail: cilkow@ohri.ca and cilkow@uottawa.ca

ORCID logo https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3488-4062

What We Do

Selected Publications

1. Jennings VA, Rumbold-Hall R, Migneco G, Barr T, Reilly K, Ingram N, St Hilare I, Heaton S, Alzamel N, Jackson D, Ralph C, Banerjee S, McNeish I, Bell JC, Melcher AA, Ilkow C, Cook GP, Errington-Mais F. “Enhancing oncolytic virotherapy by extracellular vesicle mediated microRNA reprograming of the tumour microenvironment.” Frontiers in immunology vol. 15 1500570. 23 Dec. 2024.

2. Rezaei R, Boulton S, Ahmadi M, Petryk J, Da Silva M, Kooshki Zamani N, Singaravelu R, St-Laurent G, Daniel L, Sadeghipour A, Pelin A, Poutou J, Munoz Zuniga AI, Choy C, Gilchrist VH, Khalid Z, Austin B, Onsu KA, Marius R, Ameli Z, Mohammadi F, Mancinelli V, Wang E, Nik-Akhtar A, Alwithenani A, Panahi Arasi F, Ferguson SSG, Hobman TC, Alain T, Tai LH, Ilkow CS, Diallo JS, Bell JC, Azad T. “Antibiotic-mediated selection of randomly mutagenized and cytokine-expressing oncolytic viruses.” Nature biomedical engineering, 10.1038/s41551-024-01259-7. 28 Nov. 2024.

3. Wong B, Birtch R, Bergeron A, Ng K, Maznyi G, Spinelli M, Chen A, Landry A, Crupi MJF, Arulanandam R, Ilkow CS, Diallo JS. “High throughput screen identifies lysosomal acid phosphatase 2 (ACP2) to regulate IFN-1 responses to potentiate oncolytic VSV?51 activity.” Scientific reports vol. 14,1 28284. 16 Nov. 2024.

4. Taha, Z., Crupi, M. J. F., Alluqmani, N., MacKenzie, D., Vallati, S., Whelan, J. T., Fareez, F., Alwithenani, A., Petryk, J., Chen, A., Spinelli, M. M., Ng, K., Sobh, J., Tanese de Souza, C., Bharadwa, P. R., Lee, T. K. H., Thomas, D. A., Huang, B. Z., Kassas, O., Poutou, J., Gilchrist, V. H., Boulton, S., Thomson, M., Marius, R., Hooshyar, M., McComb, S., Arulanandam, R., Ilkow, C. S., Bell, J. C., & Diallo, J-S. "Complementary dual-virus strategy drives synthetic target and cognate T-cell engager expression for endogenous-antigen agnostic immunotherapy." Nature Communications, vol. 15, no. 1, 2024, p. 7267. 23 Aug. 2024.

5. Antonova L, Paramanthan P, Falls T, Wedge ME, Mayer J, Sekhon HS, McPherson J, Denroche RE, Gallinger S, Bell JC, Ilkow CS, Chatterjee A. Molecular Characterization and Xenotransplantation of Pancreatic Cancer Using Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Fine Needle Aspiration (EUS-FNA). Cancers (Basel). 2024;16(15):2721.

6. Hodgins JJ, Abou-Hamad J, O'Dwyer CE, Hagerman A, Yakubovich E, Tanese de Souza C, Marotel M, Buchler A, Fadel S, Park MM, Fong-McMaster C, Crupi MF, Makinson OJ, Kurdieh R, Rezaei R, Dhillon HS, Ilkow CS, Bell JC, Harper ME, Rotstein BH, Auer RC, Vanderhyden BC, Sabourin LA, Bourgeois-Daigneault MC, Cook DP, Ardolino M. "PD-L1 promotes oncolytic virus infection via a metabolic shift that inhibits the type I IFN pathway." Journal of Experimental Medicine. 221(7), 2024.

7. Ilkow CS, Bell JC. Optimizing oncolytic virus design: a "Swiss army knife" approach to create a systemically delivered therapeutic. Signal Transduct Target Ther. 2024 Apr 2;9(1):82.

8. Wong B, Birtch R, Rezaei R, Jamieson T, Crupi MJF, Diallo JS, Ilkow CS. Optimal delivery of RNA interference by viral vectors for cancer therapy. Molecular Therapy. 2023 Nov 1;31(11):3127-3145.

9. Jennings VA, Ilkow CS. Generation and Quantification of Cytotoxic Lymphocytes Following Oncolytic Virus Infection of Multi-cellular Tumor Spheroids. Methods Mol Biol. 2023;2614:139-149.

10. Whelan JT, Singaravelu R, Wang F, Pelin A, Tamming LA, Pugliese G, Martin NT, Crupi MJF, Petryk J, Austin B, He X, Marius R, Duong J, Jones C, Fekete EEF, Alluqmani N, Chen A, Boulton S, Huh MS, Tang MY, Taha Z, Scut E, Diallo JS, Azad T, Lichty BD, Ilkow CS, Bell JC. CRISPR-mediated rapid arming of poxvirus vectors enables facile generation of the novel immunotherapeutic STINGPOX. Front Immunol. 2023 Jan 13;13:1050250.

11. Moulin C, Crupi MJF, Ilkow CS, Bell JC, Boulton S. Extracellular Vesicles and Viruses: Two Intertwined Entities. Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Jan 5;24(2):1036.

12. Lalu MM, Presseau J, Foster MK, Hunniford VT, Cobey KD, Brehaut JC, Ilkow CS, Montroy J,Cardenas A, Sharif A, Jeffers MS, Fergusson DA. Identifying barriers and enablers to rigorous conduct and reporting of preclinical laboratory studies. PLoS Biol. 2023 Jan 5;21(1).

13. Crupi MJF, Taha Z, Janssen TJA, Petryk J, Boulton S, Alluqmani N, Jirovec A, Kassas O, Khan ST, Vallati S, Lee E, Huang BZ, Huh M, Pikor L, He X, Marius R, Austin B, Duong J, Pelin A, Neault S, Azad T, Breitbach CJ, Stojdl DF, Burgess MF, McComb S, Auer R, Diallo J-S, Ilkow CS, Bell JC. Oncolytic virus driven T-cell-based combination immunotherapy platform for colorectal cancer. Front Immunol. 2022 Nov 3;13:1029269.

14. Taha Z, Arulanandam R, Maznyi G, Godbout E, Carter-Timofte ME, Kurmasheva N, Reinert LS, Chen A, Crupi MJF, Boulton S, Laroche G, Phan A, Rezaei R, Alluqmani N, Jirovec A, Acal A, Brown EEF, Singaravelu R, Petryk J, Idorn M, Potts KG, Todesco H, John JC, Mahoney DJ, Ilkow CS, Giguère P, Alain T, Côté M, Paludan SR, Olagnier D, Azad T, Diallo J-S. Identification of FDA-approved bifonazole as a SARS-CoV-2 blocking agent following a bioreporter drug screen. Molecular Therapy. 2022 May 6:S1525-0016(22)00296-9.

15. Wedge ME, Jennings VA, Pugliese G, Poutou J, Crupi MJF, Jamieson TR, Laight BJ, Boileau M, Khan ST, McKay HE, Pikor L, Pelin A, Rose E, Brown E, Crawford N, Tanese de Souza C, Alkayyal A, Surendran A, Singaravelu R, Roy D, Petryk J, Migneco G, McSweeney B, Cottee ML, Jacobus EJ, Keller B, Chatterjee A, Auer RA, Diallo J-S, Gibbings D, tenOever BR, Melcher A, Bell JC, Ilkow CS. “Virally programmed extracellular vesicles sensitize cancer cells to oncolytic virus and small molecule therapy”. Nature Communications, April 2022.

16. Rangsitratkul C, Lawson C, Bernier-Godon F, Niavarani SR, Boudaud M, Rouleau S, Gladu-Corbin AO, Surendran A, Ekindi-Ndongo N, Koti M, Ilkow CS, Richard PO, Tai LH. Intravesical immunotherapy with a GM-CSF armed oncolytic vesicular stomatitis virus improves outcome in bladder cancer. Molecular Therapy Oncolytics. 2022 Feb 1;24:507-521.

17. Boulton S, Poutou J, Martin NT, Azad T, Singaravelu R, Crupi MJF, Jamieson T, He X, Marius R, Petryk J, Tanese de Souza C, Austin B, Khan ST, Pelin A, Rezaei R, Surendran A, Tucker S, Brown EMF, Dave J, Diallo J-S, Auer R, Angel JB, Cameron W, Cailhier JF, Lapointe R, Potts K, Mahoney DJ, Bell JC, Ilkow CS. “Single dose replicating poxvirus vector-based RBD vaccine drives robust humoral and T cell immune response against SARS-CoV-2 infection”. Mol Ther. 2022 May 4;30(5):1885-1896.

Meet the Ilkow Lab

Young scientists are welcome to apply for a position as a master student, graduate student or post-doctoral fellow in the lab. A strong cancer biology and/or virology background is not required, whereas applicants should be willing to work hard in a collaborative environment.

Guidelines to apply as a Graduate Student at the University of Ottawa: https://www.uottawa.ca/graduate-studies/programs-admission/apply. Post-doctoral fellows are strongly encouraged to obtain independent funding during their first year of work in the lab.

Applications should include a resume and a short statement of research interest, clearly describing why the applicant wants to join the lab. At least two references should be sent independently to Dr. Carolina Ilkow (cilkow@uottawa.ca).